Immunochemical analyses, e.g. pregnancy tests, can currently be performed as follows: a sample of material to be tested, such as urine, is pipetted to a first test tube. An analysis stick, to which the material to be tested can bind, is placed in the same tube and incubated for a length of time sufficient to allow material in the urine sample to adhere to the stick. Following incubation of the sample, the stick is removed from the tube and rinsed. The stick is then transferred to a second tube, containing therein a reagent pipetted from a storage bottle, and incubated for a given time. The stick is then rinsed again and added to a third test tube to which a second reagent has been pipetted from a second bottle. The stick is incubated in this third tube for a given time, after which the test result is read as a color indication either from the liquid in the tube or directly from the surface of the stick. A method of this type has been described in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,496,654 and in the patent application EP 84303021.4.
A disadvantage of the methods of the type described above is that the person performing the test must pipet the individual reagents into separate test tubes, which in turn must be supported in a special rack. In practice, therefore, it is possible that the order of pipetting may be incorrect. In addition, the rinse steps must, in many cases, utilize running tap water, which restricts the performance of the assay to the vicinity of a tap dispensing water.